New Company for Clearing Balancing Energy

The purpose of this company is to record and clear the balancing energy according to the causation principle; it will also tender for the license to be granted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs.

Balancing energy is the difference between the electric energy that is actually fed into the grid by the suppliers (power stations, imports) and the quantities used by their customers (end consumers, exports). The clearing house is an important prerequisite for the complete opening of the power market in Austria.

Initially, the power companies VERBUND-Austrian Power Grid Gmbh (APG) and STEWEAG will be APCS shareholders; the contracts are so designed as to allow all Austrian power suppliers to invest into the company on equal terms later. APCS will have many customer data available, therefore the influence of the power suppliers is to be limited: the interest of all power suppliers in APCS will not exceed a maximum of 40 % in the aggregate. The remaining 60 % will be held by Investkredit, the auditing bank, and smart technologies, a software house.

APG, Steweag, Energie AG Oberösterreich, Kelag, Grazer Stadtwerke, Steg and Smart technologies – together with other, smaller power suppliers - are moreover working intensively on a field test aiming at the technical realization of a fully liberalized power market.

Both APCS and the field test will make a considerable contribution to guaranteeing a quick and technically perfect full liberalization of the power market in Austria for the benefit of the customers.